Recent content by Bungle

Thanks Ian, I’ll give it a go 😀

Thank you, wow, ok nothing to worry about :) I’m just outside of Chester. They filled the supers quite early, and i couldn’t keep up and they did have some honey in the brood boxes. I extracted end of june, and within no time it started to crystallise in the buckets, I think it was rape...

Hi, Two of my hives have developed this white stuff on the brood frames, which I have not seen before. Can anyone tell me what it is? It’s covering most frames, as also appears around capped brood. Thanks.

Hi, I have zero experience with collecting pollen, but would like to give it a try. I don’t like the idea of the fair weather ones that hang on the front, and ideally would like a non-plastic solution but cants seem to find anything other than the sun dance which seems to in US only? And not...

I’ll plug the paths with something or find a plastic sheet to cut up, but I’ve seem many videos where a crown board isn’t used though. It’s typical of my luck but I lost a hive in my first year when the fondant melted on a hot day and ran through the middle of the brood, and yet again I see...

Hi, Does anyone know what the channels/recessed areas set into the lid of the apidea mini nucs are for? The ones I purchased did not come with a clear crown board, and it looks like these recesses provide a clear path for the queen to bypass the excluder and travel into the feeder. I think the...

Thanks for the replies :) The tank is on a slatted timber frame that gives a 11/2 inch gap below, not much, but its about the maximum i can achieve because of the height of the tank, and the temp probe is half way up. I initially started with a a couple of small computer fans, but changed...

Hi, I'm looking for advice about how to deal with a 50kg container of honey from 2021, which I've not been able to process until now (long story!). My first mistake was putting it into a 50kg stainless steel tank (too heavy). My second mistake was leaving it in a garage that i couldn't get...

Hi, I took 4 supers off 3 hives a week ago, but unfortunately couldn't extract them until last night. I stored them in the house utility room where the temperature was 25c. All of the frames looked ok, with one or two much darker with a more uneven surface, and the extraction went well. At...

Things turned around completely - hive is now packed full of brood - amazing! I'm Just about to add a second super :) thanks again

Thanks Thorn, yes the stores seemed lowish when considering the amount of brood they now have, so i gave them a full frame of stores from another hive (which is doing great). Ill keep an eye on them and feed some more if the weather turns bad again

I didn't want to post too early, just in case ... but things have improved lots. I moved them into the Poly nuc and added a new top feeder (thinking it would help with insulation levels, i also put a second roof on aswell and kept an eye on the feed. I also gave them, some pollen patty. At...

ok thanks. I moved them into the poly today with a frame of stores. and decided not to move brood or bees, as suggested. Fingers crossed :-) The situation seemed a little better today, with more bees, larvae and capped brood than my last inspection - i think underfeeding must have been the...

Thanks everyone, the queen is 2020. I purchased her at the end of the season after a late swarm where the virgin queen never returned - I think because the weather turned for the worse - so was concerned about time. both hives were treated for varroa at the end of the year, and no sign of...

Hi everyone, Exciting time of the year :-) I went into the winter with two fairly strong hives. I nadiered one of them, and fed the other what i thought was enough syrup - over 3 weeks. Both hives survived the winter and i've seen both queens. However, the nadiered hive is very strong...